Summer 2013: Winners & Losers (cont.)

LosersThe Lone Ranger: This Summer, The Lone Ranger has been the poster child for Hollywood's bad habit of overspending on original tentpole movies. Adapted from a radio show that reached the height of its popularity around half a century ago, the movie has earned a decent $239 million worldwide, and still has an opening in China on the horizon. Unfortunately, it cost well over $200 million to produce—an outlandish figure for a Western—and will therefore wind up losing Disney an absurd amount of money.Turbo: DreamWorks Animation's Turbo may be the movie that suffered the most this Summer from poor scheduling. The animated flick opened two weeks after Despicable Me 2 and less than four weeks after Monsters University. These animated behemoths combined for over $600 million at the domestic box office, which left little family money for Turbo. Ultimately, the movie earned just over $80 million, which makes it the lowest-grossing DreamWorks Animation outing since 2006's Flushed Away.

White House Down: On paper, at least, White House Down seemed destined for box office glory: stars Channing Tatum and Jamie Foxx were coming off their biggest hits ever, and director Roland Emmerich has a great track record when it came to blowing up the executive mansion. Unfortunately, it wound up looking too similar to Olympus Has Fallen, which earned a surprisingly strong $98.9 million just three months earlier. White House Down ended the Summer with just $72.8 million at the domestic box office, and middling overseas grosses won't do much to save it.

After Earth: Will Smith's movies have consistently earned over $100 million at the domestic box office, while son Jaden's first solo outing (2010's The Karate Kid) was a massive hit with $176.6 million. However, putting the two together in After Earth didn't work out so well: the movie earned just $60.5 million at the domestic box office, which makes it one of Will's lowest-grossing movies ever.

R.I.P.D.: Pricey comic book adaptation R.I.P.D. lived up to its title by dying a quick death this Summer. The movie earned just $33.1 million at the domestic box office, and isn't really catching on overseas either. Recognizing that it had little-to-no commercial potential, Universal Pictures skimped on the marketing campaign, so they did manage to mitigate their losses a bit. Still, R.I.P.D. is definitely going to eat up some of that Despicable Me 2/Fast & Furious 6 cash.The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones: The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones was the third attempt this year at starting another young-adult franchise in the vein of Twilight. While it performed better than Beautiful Creatures or The Host, it was still a major disappointment: through its first 13 days, it earned just $24.5 million, and should close just over $30 million.Tyler Perry Presents Peeples: Every single one of writer/director Tyler Perry's movies have opened over $10 million, with many of them going on to earn north of $50 million. Unfortunately, his brand couldn't help save Peeples—which he merely produced—and the movie ultimately closed with less than $10 million.Toss-Ups

Man of Steel:Zack Snyder-directed Superman reboot Man of Steel set a June opening weekend record with an incredible $116.6 million ($128.7 million including Thursday night grosses). Unfortunately, lukewarm word-of-mouth caused the movie to collapse after opening weekend, and it will wind up earning less than $300 million at the domestic box office. Add in good overseas figures ($360 million and counting) and Man of Steel is absolutely going to turn a profit. Still, the much-publicized decision to add Batman to the Man of Steel sequel suggests that this wasn't the kind of runaway success that Warner Bros. was hoping for.

Star Trek Into Darkness: The 2009 Star Trek reboot is one of the most well-liked Summer movies of the past decade, so there was an assumption that sequel Star Trek Into Darkness was going to improve dramatically on its predecessor. That didn't really pan out: the movie earned a bit less at the domestic box office (around $230 million), and its overseas gains weren't quite as big as expected. Ultimately, Star Trek Into Darkness will earn less than $500 million worldwide, which is slightly disappointing.

World War Z: When word got out that Paramount had decided to reshoot the entire third act of World War Z, the press prematurely wrote the obituary for this already-expensive movie. Audiences didn't care about the behind-the-scenes drama, though, and the crowd-pleasing zombie flick wound up being the Summer's only non-franchise title to earn over $200 million at the domestic box office. It also did strong business overseas ($330 million and counting). Still, with the ludicrous production budget (some number well north of $200 million), it's hard to call this a win.

The Wolverine: As a follow-up to the poorly-received X-Men Origins: Wolverine—and with a cast made up largely of unknown Japanese actors—The Wolverine wound up being the lowest-grossing movie in the X-Men franchise at the domestic box office (just over $130 million). At the same time, it's already the highest-grossing outing overseas, and that's before it even reaches Japan.

The Hangover Part III: At the domestic box office, The Hangover Part III earned just $112.2 million, which is less than half as much as either of its predecessors. It played better overseas, though, and a worldwide total north of $350 million on a budget around $100 million makes this a solid investment from Warner Bros.

Pacific Rim: Guillermo Del Toro's Pacific Rim earned over $400 million worldwide, which is a strong figure for a completely original movie. Unfortunately, it was extremely pricey (around $200 million), and a large portion of its earnings came in China, where studios only take home around a quarter of the revenues.

The Smurfs 2: With over $560 million in worldwide earnings, the first Smurfs movie was a surprise hit in Summer 2011. The novelty value of seeing the little blue guys on the big screen wore off significantly by 2013, though—The Smurfs 2 is going to only earn around half as much at the domestic box office, and it's lagging overseas as well. Still, it should close with over $300 million worldwide, which will make it Sony's highest-grossing movie of the Summer.